This little guy was all over the place against Seattle. Diego Chara was not only good on the defensive end, but he was involved on the offensive side as well in getting an assist on Lucas Melano's goal.Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

GK Jake Gleeson (90 minutes): 7. It's not
that Jake had much to do as Seattle just had 3 shots on target of 16 total
shots, and most of those took place in the second half when the Sounders
started their rally. I don't think Jake could have stopped either goal - the first
was a misdirection where he was going to the right and the shot glanced to the
left off Steven Taylor at the last minute, while the header was expertly
placed. When he did have to make a
deflection or direct traffic, Jake did that really well and it allowed the
match to be stretched out when the Timbers were trying to regain control of the
tempo.

Jake Gleeson has come into his own as the starting goalkeeper for the Portland Timbers, and it's apparent he has the confidence and talent to pull this off. Gleeson wasn't challenged much in this match, but when he had to make a play or save, he was up to the task.Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

D Steven Taylor (90 minutes): 6. In just his
second start for the Timbers first team, Taylor certainly had quite a
match. He was part of a very solid
defensive effort in the first half that neutralized the Sounders offense for
long stretches, but Taylor scored his first goal for the first team off a set
piece header. Taylor already had a goal
and own goal with Timbers 2 in getting his fitness together, and it looked like
Taylor was going to add an own goal to his account off Andreas Ivanschitz's
volley in the 47th minute when he took the header off the shot and
directed it past a sprawling Gleeson for Seattle's first goal. It was the only real issue with Taylor's work
for me, as otherwise, he was reasonably solid.

Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe had escorts everywhere he went on the pitch, but it didn't stop him from being influential on the afternoon. Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

D Vytas Andriuskevicius (90 minutes): 7. Vytas has effectively taken over the left back role for the Timbers
down the stretch, and much like Taylor, he had a very eventful match. Vytas scored his first goal as a Timber in
the 16th minute off a set piece header, while he also held up well
under the first half pressure as Seattle decided to try and attack on his side
of the pitch. The second half was more
of the same, and Vytas was even able to get forward a few times to relieve some
pressure and force Seattle to not press forward as much as they would have
liked. With Powell gone on international
duty, having Vytas available will be of great importance.

M Jack Jewsbury (90 minutes): 6. With Ben Zemanski
still nursing himself back to health, it's effectively been the duo of Jewsbury
and Chara at the defensive midfield spots for the past few weeks. Jack has been very good in certain aspects of
play - holding up play, making tackles and finding distribution angles on the
attack - but Jack added a bit more by taking some of the corners and free kicks
to change up set pieces. Jack notched
the assist on Vytas' goal, and he likely could have had more with some other
conversions, but it was great to see Jack have another stellar effort.

M Diego Chara (89 minutes, substituted by M Ben Zemanski in 2nd
half stoppage time for tactics): 9. Flash backward to
nearly one week ago when these teams met at Century Link Field, and the
Sounders dominated when midfielder Nicolas Lodiero ran amuck for long stretches
because the Timbers couldn't neutralize his influence. Just a week later at Providence Park, Chara
made it his mission to keep control of Lodiero, and you could totally see the
difference as Chara limited Lodiero to a few long distance shots on goal and
limited touches on the ball. We even saw
Diego moving more within the attack, and he even grabbed an assist on Lucas
Melano's goal by being an outlet.
Impressive work for Mr. Chara all day!

The Timbers defense had a few scary moments in the second half, but they were as dominant as they've been all year in the first half in holding the Sounders FC to a limited amount of shots. It's great to see such an effort to give this group some confidence coming into a very busy September.Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

M Ben Zemanski (1 minute, brought on for M Diego Chara in 2nd
half stoppage time): 5. It's good to see Ben getting
back into the fold with several matches during September that will involve
travel, because the Timbers will need influence from the central midfield. Zemanski came on late to give Chara a slight
break from play, and there were no huge glaring errors or issues within that
time. It's great to see that we will
finally be able to get our full rotation with seven matches from September 3 to
October 1 - three road matches to FC Dallas, Houston and Colorado, home dates
with Real Salt Lake and Philadelphia and the two CCL road matches to CD Dragon
(El Salvador) and Saprissa (Costa Rica).

M Diego Valeri (90 minutes): 8. We have seen Diego
elevate his play over the past few weeks with scoring goals, but what we saw
against Seattle was a very different direction that Valeri can play - expert distributor. Valeri tallied two assists on the afternoon,
getting the second assist on Melano's goal plus the assist from the corner on
Steven Taylor's header, but he could have earned more if the Timbers had
finished a couple of other chances. Valeri
was also very good late when the Timbers were holding the ball to run down the
clock. With
Nagbe gone for USMNT duty, the creative duties will fall upon Diego.

M Lucas Melano (83 minutes, substituted by M Ned Grabavoy in 83rd
minute for tactics): 7. There has been a lot of talk
about Melano's work over the weeks as Melano hasn't been tallying goals or
assists, but Melano was heavily involved in the first half work. Not only did
he get the third goal for the Timbers off a great pass from Valeri and Chara,
he started the play by finding Valeri on the flank. Melano was also active on the other goals by
simply stretching the defense where and when he could - and the fact he stayed
out wide was even better considering that it pushed several defenders out wider
than they wanted.

It wouldn't be a Cascadia Cup match without some tensions between the sides, and sure enough, the Timbers and Sounders had some testy moments.Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

M Ned Grabavoy (7 minutes, brought on for M Lucas Melano in the 83rd
minute): 5. Ned entered for Lucas late in the match in a
straight up swap on the wing, and Ned really didn't do much outside of helping the
Timbers kill off the clock. Ned is one
of the best passers in the history of MLS, and that did help in a few runs
where the Timbers just moved forward and were more interested in running down
the time instead of scoring. Ned will
likely get more playing time during the busy September, but he didn't make any
errors in his brief appearance.

M Darlington Nagbe (90 minutes): 7. So what did
Darlington do all day for the Timbers? Well, all he did was complete 91 percent
of his passes, he earned 4 fouls on the opposition, and was the catalyst for
many of the attacking runs we saw against Seattle. Nagbe didn't get an official shot on goal or
assist, but he was involved in the creation of those goals, and that's a big
thing for the Timbers' offense. We won't
see Nagbe against FC Dallas, which is too bad because he usually performs
exceptionally against FC Dallas, especially down there. I wish that sometimes he would be selfish and
take some shots sometimes, but if he can keep up the facilitation like he has,
Portland will be just fine.

F Fanendo Adi (90 minutes): 9. All we needed to
see about how the Timbers offense works without Adi and with him is just look
at the two matches with the Sounders. In
match 1 up there, Adi came on late as a sub for internal reasons, and the
Timbers' offense struggled to find their rhythm and focus until Adi came on to
occupy the defense. In this match, Adi
was all over the pitch in the first half dominating the Seattle center backs
repeatedly. His ability to hold the ball
and win it in traffic is important for the Timbers, and we saw that a lot in
the first half. While he wasn't as
effective in the second half, he did help the team run down the clock.

While Cristian Roldan controlled the match in Seattle for long stretches, he was a huge non-factor in the match in Portland. I credit that to the work of the central midfield of Diego Chara and Jack Jewsbury, who simply held up the other side for most of the match.Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

Timbers Coaching Staff: 7. It was interesting
to watch the tactical differences between the two matches and the lineup that
Porter used for them. Match 1 saw Jack
McInerney as the single forward with a more passive approach to try and absorb
pressure and counter whenever possible, and the results weren't ideal as the
Timbers conceded 3 goals in the second half for the loss. With Adi back, the Timbers used more of an
active attack with Adi holding up the center backs with support from the wings
and center. The result was 4 goals in a
45 minute half, then a very conservative but effective second half. I look forward to seeing what the Timbers
will do with more players being available over the coming weeks.

Seattle Sounders FC: 4. If I had to give a
rating for the first half for the opponents, I'd have to give it a 1 simply
because they didn't do much of anything right.
The Sounders were ambushed big time, and they simply gave up without
much of a fight during the 45 minutes and 4 goal onslaught. I give them some credit for showing fight in
the second half, and you could tell the confidence was growing with 2 goals in
the first 5 minutes of the second half to bring things close. They couldn't get anything closer than 4 to
2, but at least there was some fight within a very undermanned side.

Officials: 5. When you have Hilario Grajeda
at the controls of a match, the results can be random - Grajeda can either call
everything or nothing and there's not much in between. There was some concerns early when Grajeda
did miss a few calls on the Sounders, but things evened out quite a bit when
the Timbers continued their aggressiveness and were rewarded with several key
fouls and corners for their effort.
Grajeda did hand out 4 cautions, but he gave them all to the visitors
for excessive contact and dissent, and I was impressed the Timbers didn't fall
for some of the tactics that could create cards for them.

The Seattle defense might have some nightmares from watching the Timbers run circles around them for most of the match. Portland needs to continue this trend if they hope to make the postseason and defend their MLS Cup title.Picasa

Overall defensive rating: 7. Defensively, this
was one of the best collective efforts of the season as the Timbers really
controlled the Sounders for most of the match.
There were individual mistakes and two goals conceded early in the
second half, but the defense didn't hang their head about the problems and
picked up the resolve to continue their marking. It will be interesting to see who Porter
selects to replace Powell while he's out this weekend, but the other members of
the defense appear up to task down the stretch.
My bet is that we'll see Taylor Peay fill in for Powell with Zarek
Valentin on the bench if needed.

Overall offensive rating: 7. It was good to see
the Timbers come out of their shell offensively with 4 goals in the first
half. While they have scored several
goals at home - the team has a plus 11 score differential at home between goals
scored and conceded at Providence Park - this was one of most impressive
sequences within the first 45 minutes.
Simply put, this group is so much better when Adi can control the ball
up top, Melano is working well off the wings with his speed instead of bunching
in the middle, and the creative forces are feeding the ball about.

Overall grade for the Timbers: 8. If we break
this down by half, the performance couldn't have been any better in the first
half, while the second half was a bit more up and down. Where I'm inclined to score up more on the
second half was the Timbers really did manage the clock well after conceding 2
goals by putting more emphasis on controlling the tempo and approach. This one could have gone off the rails, and
the recipe was certainly there, but the Timbers avoided it and posted one of
their more impressive wins of the 2016 season.